April 2025 North America Newsletter
At J-PAL North America, our work supports many key building blocks throughout the research lifecycle, from strengthening the capacity of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in the generation and use of evidence; to funding and supporting new research; to translating research into action. These building blocks reinforce and rely upon each other, creating a positive and ever strengthening ecosystem for evidence-based policymaking.
For example, J-PAL North America’s funding opportunities, a primary activity in expanding the evidence base, draw upon both our diverse research network who investigate a broad range of topics and our community of leaders across the country who champion evidence generation and use in their organizations and jurisdictions. Expanding the evidence base in a meaningful way, then, relies upon the strength of these networks. A broad evidence base paves the way for evidence synthesis and outreach to policymakers to spur action.
The pieces featured in this month’s newsletter demonstrate key activities along our own theory of change—and along the research cycle—that further our mission, strengthen our networks, and bring rigorous evidence to urgent policy discussions. We highlight an innovative program to develop a strong pipeline of emerging economists and a new Ideas to Implementation blog series featuring partners who are working with J-PAL staff to identify and design evaluations of critical programs and policies. We also showcase how we synthesize and disseminate evidence, featuring resources from a recent J-PAL North America webinar that explore research results on cash transfers and their impact on health outcomes. I encourage you to explore these featured pieces and more below.
Sincerely,
Laura Feeney
Co-Executive Director, J-PAL North America
Join us in supporting pathways for emerging economists
Rigorous research has the power to improve lives. To realize this potential, we need more highly-skilled researchers who can research critical policy questions and turn evidence into action. To advance this need, we are launching Economics Pathways—a targeted effort to empower the next generation of economists researching critical policy questions through training, mentorship, and funding. We invite you to read more about this new initiative and to partner with us and contribute to Economics Pathways. Your support will directly empower the next generation of researchers to drive sound, evidence-based policy solutions.
Announcing newly funded projects through J-PAL North America initiatives
In our most recent round of funding, J-PAL North America awarded twelve projects across the Social Policy Research Initiative (SPRI), State and Local Innovation Initiative (SLII), and Health Care Delivery Initiative (HCDI) with funding to pilot and evaluate innovative social programs and policies. These projects will test a range of new interventions—including a mobile application for parents to foster language skills and curiosity among their young children and exploratory analyses to understand barriers to short-term rental assistance, among others. Visit our funded projects pages for HCDI, SLII, and SPRI to read more about these exciting projects »
New Ideas to Implementation blog series features partner experiences in designing randomized evaluations
What does it take to design and implement a randomized evaluation? In the Ideas to Implementation blog series, our LEVER Evaluation Incubator partners reflect on the key steps involved in designing a randomized evaluation of their innovative programs. Read the blog series for insights on scoping programs for evaluation readiness, developing a program’s theory of change, establishing partnerships with researchers, and embedding community-engaged practices in evaluation design.
Cash transfers in North America: Evidence, impact, and future directions
As cash transfer programs gain popularity in the United States, numerous studies have examined these programs and how they impact people's lives. Last month, we brought together researchers from three recent studies that evaluated the effects of cash transfers on health outcomes. Watch the event recording to learn more about the evidence and the connections between each study and check out our new webpage to learn more about our cash transfer work.
Randomization’s capacity for flexibility: How to build randomization into a competitive, multi-step application process
When demand for a program exceeds availability, there is a straightforward approach to embed randomization into the intake process and evaluate. But what if you want to maintain some control over who participates in your program? What if you have compositional targets you want to achieve? Or if you just don’t want the program participants to be quite so… random? In a new post on the J-PAL blog, Jesse Gubb (Senior Research Manager) and Jessica Sashihara (Senior Research and Training Manager) propose a randomization design for the Pursuit Fellowship, a sectoral employment program with a competitive application and selection process, to demonstrate how a program’s enrollment model can still be preserved in a randomized evaluation. Check out the blog post and read this report that provides more detail about design considerations, challenges, and opportunities for other programs with similar intake processes that are considering evaluating their impact.
Featured Event
Co-Designing for Equity: Antiracist practice in research and evaluation for greater public impact
On May 21, J-PAL North America Co-Executive Director Laura Feeney will co-host the next edition in the Evidence Matters webinar series—conducted in partnership with the Lab for Economic Opportunities and King County, Washington. The discussion will explore how antiracist behavioral science can shape better research questions, stronger partnerships, and smarter service delivery—especially with communities historically excluded from decision-making. Researchers, policymakers, and public servants will come away with fresh perspectives and concrete ideas to use in their work to create more inclusive, effective, and just public systems. Register today »